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On Wave of Voter Unrest, Democrats Take Control of House

IN FLORIDA Joe Negron, the Republican candidate to replace former Representative Mark Foley, conceded in Hutchinson Island to Tim Mahoney, the Democrat.Credit
Rick Scibelli Jr. for The New York Times

Democrats rode voter unrest over Congressional misconduct and the war in Iraq back to power in the House on Tuesday night, ending 12 years of Republican rule by persuading voters it was time to change course in Washington.

Led by a string of victories in the Northeast and Midwest, Democrats gained at least 21 seats, 6 more than the 15 required to install Representative Nancy Pelosi of California as the first woman to become speaker of the House. Assuming they hold on to enough of their incumbent seats elsewhere, Democrats will hold the House majority for the first time since 1994.

“Today, the American people have stated loud and clear that they want a new direction for our country,” said an ebullient Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York, who is in line to become the chairwoman of the House Rules Committee in the new Democratic regime.

Republicans were dogged by scandal throughout the campaign, and it cost them dearly. They lost seats in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida as the direct result of criminal cases and other misconduct. Exit polls showed that corruption weighed heavily on the minds of voters.

But public dissatisfaction with the Iraq war and other issues was clear. Three Republican incumbents were defeated in conservative Indiana and another in Kentucky. Two moderate Republicans were ousted in New Hampshire and at least one more in Connecticut. New York, with Democrats leading the top of the ticket, gave the party at least two more seats. Democratic gains mounted as votes were counted in the West.

The White House acknowledged that the once overwhelming Republican majority in the House had slipped away.

“We believe Democrats will have control of the House and look forward to working with Democratic leaders on the issues that remain foremost on the agenda, including winning the war in Iraq and the broader war on terror and keeping the economy on a growth path,” said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman.

Ms. Pelosi told an enthusiastic crowd in Washington that her resurgent majority was prepared to work with Republicans “in partnership and not in partisanship,” hoping to break the gridlock of what could be a divided Congress.

“The campaign is over — Democrats are ready to lead,” she said. “Today we have made history — now let us make progress.”

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who was expected to retire should Republicans slip into the minority, was not ready to concede, though he said, “We’ve watched some of the House races, especially in the East — been kind of tough out there.”

The Republican setback will likely spur leadership fights beginning Wednesday as ambitious lawmakers in both parties try to find their way in the reshaped House.

Democratic control of the House will begin a new era in Washington, giving the party the votes to install its members as committee leaders and initiate more aggressive oversight of the Bush administration. Democrats have complained for years that Republicans have ignored their responsibility as an independent branch of government to police the executive branch.

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The party has also promised a legislative agenda that starts with an increase in the minimum wage and giving the government the power to negotiate for lower drug prices for Medicare. But with control of the Senate uncertain and the margin so close, it is unlikely the new Democratic majority will have a free hand.

In Indiana, three Republican incumbents who were top targets of the Democrats — John Hostettler, Chris Chocola, and Mike Sodrel — lost.

In Connecticut, Chris Murphy, a Democrat, was declared the winner in a race against Representative Nancy Johnson, a moderate Republican.

And in Kentucky, another Republican Representative, Anne M. Northup, a veteran lawmaker who had withstood strong challenges in the past, lost narrowly to her Democratic opponent, John Yarmuth, a former Republican political candidate and publisher of an alternative newspaper in Louisville. Democrats had not counted on beating Ms. Northup in making their calculation for a House takeover.

In Georgia, in fact, two Democratic incumbents, John Barrow and Jim Marshall, were in tight races of their own, though they were among only a few party lawmakers who were considered in danger of defeat.

Republicans had known for months that they faced a volatile political environment, but they believed they could stem serious losses because many of the lawmakers most in jeopardy were in Republican-friendly districts and the party had the benefit of a powerful turnout operation.

They were also counting on the fact that House races traditionally turn on local issues rather than the national political picture. But a national exit poll indicated that most voters in House races were viewing this crucial midterm through the prism of national concerns. In another sign of struggle for the Republicans, voters also rated corruption as one of their major considerations.

The seeds for the Republicans’ precarious position in the House were planted in the early days of the 109th Congress in January 2005, when House leaders found themselves in a clash with Democrats over charges of corruption and their iron-fisted management of the chamber. Over the next two years, the Republicans were plagued by a series of lobbying and personal scandals, internal disputes over spending, and an uncertain new leadership.

At the pinnacle of the chamber’s turmoil was Tom DeLay, the former Republican leader and key architect of the party’s control over the House, who was indicted in Texas on a campaign finance law charge and faced an ethics inquiry in Congress. Angry over a series of rebukes by the ethics committee to Mr. DeLay, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert forced through a series of changes that Democrats and watchdogs saw as a campaign to weaken internal policing. Democrats balked, setting the angry and combative tone for the session.

At the same time, the influence-peddling scandal tied to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff continued to simmer and other scandals, notably a bribery case that led to the conviction of former Representative Randy Cunningham, Republican of California, provided substance for the Democratic charge that the Republican-led House had lost its ethical bearings.

As they left for the campaign trail at the end of September, Republicans found themselves where they began, contending with the toxic fall-out of former Representative Mark Foley sexually suggestive messages to male teenage pages, throwing the party badly off message and providing a last straw for voters already upset with the majority.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page P2 of the New York edition with the headline: On Wave of Voter Unrest, Democrats Take Control of House. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe